Prior to the beginning of the 2025 NBA Draft on Wednesday, the Brooklyn Nets made an interesting move by acquiring a fifth first-round pick for the festivities through a multi-team trade. Before the reported deal on Tuesday, Brooklyn already had the eighth, 19th, 26th, and 27th overall picks in the Draft, but it seems like they wanted more draft capital to work with.
It was reported one day before the first round of the Draft on Wednesday that the Nets acquired forward Terance Mann and the 22nd overall pick from the Atlanta Hawks. Brooklyn didn’t give up anything in the 3-team trade with the Hawks and Boston Celtics other than giving up some of their league-leading cap space to take on Mann and his $15.5 million salary for the 2025-26 season.
Leading up to the Draft, many around the league assumed that the Nets would be active in trying to either package some of their picks to move up or to push some of their capital into future years. However, Brooklyn appeared to head into the event with other goals in mind and not only did they go against what was expected of them, but they leaned into the risk.
Evaluating Brooklyn’s Return
After the events of the Draft in which the Nets used the No. 22 pick to take North Carolina forward Drake Powell, it’s important to evaluate the trade with him in mind. Powell, 19, is regarded as the kind of player that can contribute right away as a 3-and-D archetype on the wing with the potential for more thanks to his athleticism and physical profile.
Mann, 28, returns to his hometown of Brooklyn to potentially play the role of the veteran that can spread the floor and defend the opposing team’s best perimeter player. Mann’s salary for next season makes him the third-most expensive player on the Nets’ roster after center Nic Claxton ($25.3 million) and forward Cam Johnson ($21.0 million).
It’s fair to wonder if Mann will be on the roster at the beginning of the 2025-26 season, but for the purpose of this grading process, it’s assumed that he will be. Mann is coming off a 2024-25 season in which he averaged 7.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game while shooting 49.6% from the field and 36.8% from three-point range as a member of the Los Angeles Clippers and Hawks.
Essentially, it cost the Nets $15.5 million to get a player like Mann that could start for the team next season along with a player in Powell who has an interesting future because of his profile. While Brooklyn could have went with someone like Georgia forward Asa Newell or Colorado State wing Nique Clifford, Powell is a player that many experts liked because of his overall profile.
Grade: B
Mann (or whoever/whatever the Nets possibly trade him for) and Powell will be interesting to watch from this trade given that Brooklyn had the chance of parlaying their draft capital and/or cap space to acquire more. If Powell is able to develop into the kind of player that can part of the Nets’ rotation for the next few years, that would be a success given his draft slot.
If Mann stays in Brooklyn, his average production would be solid for a Nets team that could use as many floor-spacers as possible, especially with the team leaning into ball-handlers heavily in the Draft. Mann’s salary for the 2025-26 season puts him in the range of players like Cleveland Cavaliers forward Max Strus and Clippers forward Bogdan Bogdanovic.